


Surana's Story

by jinxedragon



Series: All together now [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, FTM OC, Multi, Original Character(s), Surana is not a warden, Trevelyan's past before Inquisition, all the wardens make an appearance, templar oc - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-27
Packaged: 2018-08-24 03:31:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8355385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jinxedragon/pseuds/jinxedragon
Summary: Atlas Surana has committed the crime of helping a blood mage escape and now must face punishment. However, with the world turning itself on it's head maybe there's still a chance at redemption.





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize beforehand, this work is being done without someone to check my work so expect mistakes. Tags will also be updated with each chapter. Other than that Please enjoy!

  I shivered, huddling close to the wall of my dark damp cell. I’d never been down here before, I didn’t even know the circle had a dungeon until recently. My escapade to help Jowan get rid of his phylactery, had brought us through here. Skeletons of mages long forgotten scattered in the cells, had brought a chill to my spine. Now here I was, locked away and forgotten for who knows how long. They were supposed to taken me to Aeonar with Lilly but the grand enchanter had argued on my behalf, but that had been weeks ago … or had it been months? I couldn’t tell, it’d been so long since anyone had come down here. Maybe they had truly forgotten me or maybe they planned to let me starve to death.

  The thought of food made my stomach grumble in pain. I would have roasted a couple of the rats that scurried by if his magic had worked, the collar and cuffs made sure of that. They had some sort of enchantment that drained magic; if it had been anyone else I would have been fascinated by it but sitting here now with my magic drained made it more of an annoyance than anything else.

  I leaned against the cold wall and closed my eyes, listening to the drips of moisture and the scurrying of rats. I hadn’t realized he had fallen asleep, until a loud bang had woken me into full alertness. I realized with sudden griping fear that faint screams had suddenly began to fill the room. As soon as I had heard it though, it was gone with another bang.

  I heard my voice shakily yell out, “Hello, What’s happening!?”  A chuckle came as a reply, and from the other room stepped in three figures. The fear grew gripping my throat, until one figure rose their hand and produced a ball of light. Holding the light was an elven woman with long dark red hair that matched my own, and two humans stood behind her with short mousy brown hair.

  “Opal, Why are you here?” I asked in hushed confusion. She shouldn’t be down here, none of them should be. Why had I heard screams? What was going on? My mind flooded with questions.

 Opal looked at me and gave me a feral grin that sent a shiver down my spine, “Why dear brother we’re here to liberate you!”

  Something was wrong, something felt so very wrong with the way she looked. “Where are the Templars?” I squeaked out.

  Her grin grew wider, “Don’t worry about them, they’re being taken care of.” Her gaze seemed so cold, so wrong.

  “What have you done…”

“I’ve helped them liberate us,” she said squatting down to my eye level, “I’ve become something so much stronger and now you’ll be stronger too.” Her tone is almost wistful but it sends a wave of fear through me.

  With her leaning closer I can see what’s wrong now, she’s covered in blood and her eyes are glowing red instead of the cool blue they usually are. “What’s wrong with you?” I ask even though I know; I know but I’m hoping I don’t.

  Her grin fades, “There’s nothing wrong with me… but don’t worry you’ll see that soon enough.” She stands and reaches for a pair of keys hooked to her waist. She unlocks the door, allowing the two humans behind her through. I got to my feet, something was really wrong and right now I’d rather not go with them. Before I could strike out they grabbed his arms and dragged me from the cell. I cried out to Opal begging her to stop whatever this was but she ignored me and headed out the door in front of us.

  They tried to drag me further, but with what little strength I had I bit and pulled and screamed. The man to my left snorted, irritated with my attempt to free myself; the man grabbed the back of my head and bashed it into the passing wall. Pain filled my head and darkness began to cloud my vision. Limply I fell between them.

 

  The sudden jolt of pain woke me for the seventh time this week, or at least I thought it had been a week. It could have been less, could have been more, it was hard to tell.

  Uldred had offered me power and freedom, but I’d seen what they all had done, what my own sister had done. They had killed, and maimed, and tortured not just the Templars but any mage who defied them. Then there had been the demons and abominations that had stalked the tower looking for prey.

  I had looked at Uldred with disgust and had spit on him, Uldred in return had laughed and brought up his hand, pain suddenly filling me.  My body had twisted and turned, writhing in pain that was wreaking havoc on my insides. I didn’t know how long it had gone on, how long it had lasted until I had finally passed out. All I knew is that it kept going… six times I’d woken up to pain that never stopped but this time was different. I opened his eyes looking at the mages arguing. I caught bits of their conversation.

“…should of given in by now..”

“I know…. I don’t know why he won’t…”

“ …Should just kill him..”

  I laughed at the last one, maker I hoped they did because I was ready for it. I would rather die than let a demon in and from the sounds of the footsteps heading toward us, I might get my wish. But before anything else could be said an angry shout filled the room.

  Before I could even blink the mages that had stood before me where dead and standing above their bodies was someone carrying a shield and sword. I wanted to laugh, or cry I wasn’t sure which, so I settled for both.

The figure turned and looked at me with shock. Then quickly knelt by my side and tried to help me up, but even the littlest movement made me want to scream.

“Shit, they sure did a number on you, huh?” the figure said and damn did they sound familiar. I looked up catching a better image of their face. Tan skin, short brown hair that had been shaved on the sides, and piercing grey eyes filled my vision.

“Knight Emery..?” I asked in confusion. I had been sure that all the Templars had been killed or possessed, but here Emery was a little tattered and worse for wear but alive and in his own mind. “How the fu..”

  “Not now,” Emery hushed “I’m going to lift you, try to keep quiet.” Before I could respond I was lifted into the air, choking back a scream of pain. Emery rushed from the room, dodging out of sight of any nearby enemies, until they finally reached an empty bedroom.

  Emery quickly set me on the bed, and then moved to lock the door and bar anyone from getting through. “That should hold for a little while,” he said as he moved around the room searching for something.

  I snorted, “Hopefully.”

  Emery shook his head and grabbed a bright red bottle from a cabinet. “Here drink this healing potion,” he said as he pressed the bottle to my lips. I didn’t even hesitate; I let the potion slide down my throat, eagerly drinking it in hope that it’d numb the pain faster.

  I sighed with relief as the potion began to take effect. I looked towards Emery who had begun to scrounge through the room again. He didn’t have his normal Templar armor on just a hodgepodge of chain metal and leather covering them.

  “What happened to your armor?”

  “Didn’t have enough time to get into mine when everything started to go to shit,” he said, “besides this is lighter and quiet enough to sneak around in.”

“Why’d you save me?” I asked. It was strange, Emery as a Templar should have felt obligated to kill me for the chance of being possessed. Especially considering what I had just gone through and having helped a blood mage myself.

  Emery hesitated then looked me in the eyes, “I’m going to save as many people as I possibly can…Even you,” he added with a hiss.

  Guess he’s not too happy about saving me, I thought with a sigh. I scratched at the collar on my neck, “Do you think..”

“No.”

“But I didn’t even…”

“No,” Emery turned and glared at me.

“Fine,” I said with a huff.

  I closed my eyes; it was surprisingly quiet with just the sound of Emery shuffling around. I wondered when the screams had stopped, when the tower had become so deathly silent. I felt myself slowly began to fall asleep and soon I was once again oblivious to the burning world around me.


	2. What now?

Emery quickly dispatched another wave of demons that had been sent against us for the fifth time today. Emery Trevelyan was surprisingly friendlier than I had anticipated; he helped me to the best of his ability and slowly I was able to get back on my feet. We were running low on supplies though, and Emery was running low on lyrium. Ultimately, we were stuck in the bedroom for the time being, with waves of demons that could be upon us at any time.   
“You know if you take of the…” I began only to be interrupted by a swift shake of his head.  
“I don’t even know how to take them off,” He snorted a response crouching near the deceased body of a possessed Templar. Getting up and coming towards me he placed a dagger in my hand, “If you really want to fight do it with this, and I better not see you attempting blood magic with it,” he growled, “or else.”  
I stared at the dagger in my hand, “How am I supposed to use this?”   
Emery looked at me and barked out a laugh. “My guess is you would use it to stab anything that got to close,” he snickered.  
I blushed, the tips of my ears burned in embarrassment. “Right… Of course,” I said testing the dagger’s weight in my hand. “Isn’t there anything bigger?”   
Emery snorted as he began to reestablish our blockade, “You wouldn’t be able to swing anything larger than that.”   
“We’re going to need to find food and water soon,” he mumbled as he finished the blockade. “We’ll wait it out a bit and then try to move down to the lower floors.”   
I nodded an acknowledgment, “How long has this all been going on for?”  
Emery stared at me shocked, “Oh… that’s right you were in the cells when all this happened.” He came over and sat on the bed. “I’d have to say it’s been at least a month, it started when Uldred returned from the battle front. He was talking all kinds of nonsense and all of sudden we were overrun.” He paused and said in almost a whisper, “No one expected it…”  
“How did you escape?” I asked sitting next to him.  
“I didn’t,” was his hollow reply. He sighed and leaned back on the bed; hands covering his face. “No one did.”  
“You should rest,” I replied looking down at his laying form. He looked exhausted, like he’d just fought an entire war by himself; probably felt like it too.   
“I’ll rest when I’m de-“ he began to say only to be interrupted by pounding on the door. Emery was out of the bed and in a fighting stance in an instant. I stood behind him shakily hanging onto the dagger he’d given me.   
It grew quiet and then suddenly a large man barreled through the doorway followed by six figures. Before anything more could happen, a voice calmly raised said, “Surana?” A familiar figure stepped forward.   
“Wynne, you’re alive!” I gasped excitedly and then quickly hid behind Emery because I realized she’d most definitely be very angry at me. From the look she gave me she was caught between anger and relief.   
“Another circle mage, Wynne?” a human male with dark brown short hair asked. He looked ready for war, as he was covered fully in plate mail, and was completely covered in gore.   
“Yes, though why he’s still here is a mystery,” Wynne gave me a puzzled look, “You shouldn’t be here at all.”   
“Don’t look at me, I haven’t exactly had a say in where I want to be lately,” I snorted a laugh, still using Emery as a shield.  
“Senior enchanter, if I may ask, have the knights received any orders?” Emery asked worriedly.   
“No, not yet,” Wynne said softly.   
“Then there’s still time to stop this madness,” Emery uttered with a sigh of relief.  
“So, you’re the crazy sod that thought he could take on a bunch of demons on his own,” said the dwarf, who was also covered in gore. “You’ve got stones kid, I’ll give you that.”  
“Uhhh.. Thanks… I think..,” Emery responded, than with a shake of his head asked “Who exactly are you people?”   
“Oh, right introductions. I’m Aedan,” the one covered in plate mail said as he began pointing to his companions, “The ugly dwarf is Toris, the broody elf is Theo, the deadly elf is Selene, the big guy who punched down your barricade is Sten, the pretty one is Leliana, that one’s Morrigan and finally Wynne… who you already knew.” By the time he was done his companions with making a variety of faces.   
“Why is such a strange group of people even here?” I found myself asking as I glanced over each of them.   
“We’re Wardens,” the ‘broody’ elf, Theo, stated, looking incredibly bored with the situation already.   
Aedan added, “we’re here for the mages help, but in order to get that we need to clear the circle of demons.”   
“If you’re here to finish this, I’m with you,” Emery said with a nod of his head.   
“Great we could use all the help we can get,” Aedan replied. “What about you?” he said with a gesture towards me.   
“I can’t exactly do much,” I grimaced. “Kind of got some magic blocking jewelry on,” I finished by holding up the cuffs for them to see.   
“Wait… if they could use that, then why make people tranquil?” Selene asked confused.   
“Cause they wear off eventually,” Emery explained.   
“Wait they do! Why didn’t you tell me!” I looked at him hurt. He responded by giving me a look that said ‘really, you’re asking that?’   
“We should not be standing around with Idle chatter,” the big one Sten sternly interrupted, “There are demons that need to be killed.”  
“Right, right. Whelp keep up if you can,” Aedan turned on his heel and headed out the door the others close behind. Emery without looking back followed them through the door. Andraste’s holy knickers I am not going to be left alone.  
I probably should have taken my chance to escape; instead though I followed them into the unknown.


	3. A new start

   The battle with Uldred had been vicious; especially with him attempting to change mages right in front of us.  There had only been two copies of the litany; so Emery and I were given the job to keep the mages from changing while everyone else worked to fight against Uldred.  We’d expected him to go down hard and fast with their combined strength but then he had to turn into a pride demon.  

   That had been an experience all in itself; I had to stumble over the words of the litany, shaking absolutely terrified. Emery ended up having to do work for two because I was stumbling so badly over the words. By the time the battle was over I was ready to cry with relief. It was over, finally over.

  Everyone seemed at a loss as what to do next and for the most part just seemed to want to rest. So we took a few minutes and got our senses together. Irving seemed in a daze and had yet to notice me; I stayed as far away from him as possible. That didn’t stop Wynne though.

  “Atlas,” she said softly as she drew next to me, “How are you faring?”

   I was still shaking, but not from the demon anymore. I knew there were only two options left to deal with me; either death or tranquility. I looked her in the eyes and laughed, “How do you think?”

  She looked at me sadly and left to help heal the others.

  “I’ll vouch for you,” Emery commented as he sat next to me.

  “Why?” I asked looking at him. He looked exhausted, like the last of his strength had finally been spent. He gave me a considerate look.

  “You helped, didn’t you?” he stated raising an eyebrow.  “Besides, you’re not a bad person, as far as I know at least,” he shrugged.

  “You’ll probably be under scrutiny too. More so if you vouch for me,” I sighed meeting his eyes, “Please don’t do that to yourself for my sake.”

  “Screw what they think, I stand up for the people I car- take care of,” he said the last part looking away.

 “You two ready, we’re headed back down the tower,” Aedan called over to us. We got up; there was nothing left to say.

   When we reached the bottom though, that’s when I got pissed because standing ahead of us was Elaine Amell. Before I could even get close to her to strangle the life out of her, Irving caught my shoulder.

  “Atlas, calm yourself boy, anger will not help your situation,” he calmly informed me. I sent her a glare but did nothing as I passed her ever stoic form.

  The wardens talked with the Knight Commander, confirming with him that the bloodmages and demons had been dealt with.  At some point Wynne requested to join them, but that’s as much as I got from the conversation. I was shaking again and it wasn’t long before the knight commander looked at me.

   “Oh that’s right!” Aedan began to say, “Since were building a bit of an army; I’d like to request this mage be sent with us.”

  “What!” me,  the Knight Commander, and everyone in the room seemed to exclaim.

  “Yes, well you see he is a mage and we are here for mage help. I was talking to Irving on the way down and he was saying that he’s a particularly gifted tempest. If you have a problem with sending him without any watch, you can always send this Knight with him,” he finished gesturing towards Emery.  He had as all gaping at him like he was insane.

  “This mage is a criminal!” the Knight Commander finally responded back.

  “So are most of the people in our group. The blight doesn’t care what you are Commander, it affects us all,” he was utterly convincing. This was not a man who you would want to debate with.

  The knight commander sighed rubbing his forehead, like this all was a giant headache. “Fine, Knight Emery you are in charge of this mage. Should he resort to bloodmagic or attempt to flee you are to kill him on the spot.”

“Yes, sir,” was Emery’s automatic response.

  “As for you,” he sent me a glare, “Give me your hands.” I held out my hands and allowed him to remove the restraints that had been holding back my magic. My fingers sparked with the sudden release, the feel of energy flowing around my body.  It was a relief to feel it again.

  The knight commander sent us off with a wave and a glare that could do nothing to diminish my excitement. Until we got to the boat, _Oh maker no_.I froze staring at it as it paddled the first group of people over to the other shore.

  “What’s the matter,” Emery asked, watching me as I stood horrified.

  “He can’t swim,” Elaine commented dully, not even bothering to look up from her book.  

  “Thanks El, you just love to betray me don’t you!” I snapped back at her.

   She snapped her book closed and looked me in the eye, “I warned you that you shouldn’t get involved; you refused to listen so it is, therefore, your fault you ended up in that situation, not mine.”

  “You didn’t just betray me though, you betrayed Jowan too!” I yelled at her.

  “He was not my friend, he was yours. There had been rumors of him doing bloodmagic, so I felt that he was not a safe person, thus, I told Irving of his plans.” She continued on, “You saw that the rumors were true, remember. I made the right choice.”

  “You are just so… ugh… frustrating! You left me to take all the blame! Do you even know what happened afterwards? Do you even care to know what happened to Opal!?” I cried out.

  She looked at me sadly, the first emotion I’d seen on her face today. “Opal told us what she did… She gloated about it… I should have not left with the wardens but Irving had assured me he’d do his best to protect you...”  she stood up and placed herself in front of me. “I’m sorry I left you and I’m sorry about Opal.”

  I could feel tears in my eyes, “Who killed her?” I knew the answer without even asking but I had to hear her say it.

  “I did,” she stated calmly. I broke down crying and the people around me let me. By the time it was our turn to cross the lake; I was too numb to fear the water. Even so Emery held a study hand on my shoulder.


End file.
